White Rose
by 8cheshirekat
Summary: [Rurouni Kenshin] [Souzou SagaraOC, KenshinSano, slight AU] A White Rose amongst the deadly blades of war can be a beauty with a secret. Kenshin meets an old friend from the past and finds a new tale to be told.
1. The Challange Is Laid

The Meji Era has passed for ten years, bringing peace and happiness for the citezens in Kyoto and Tokyo. But there is a past friendship that has deepened for it's own good. Two friends, seperated by time and space, are meeting for the first time in ages. A girl with the beauty of a rose and a boy with the power of ten men...

---_Kyoto, Kamiya Kashin Dojo, Himura Kenshin_---

He was setting out the laundry to dry. His long red hair swished behind him, like a beautiful wave of red water on a sea of pink sand. His kimono consisted of a pink top and white bottom. His face was smooth and calming, but the soft curves are interupted by the scars of the past, carved deep into the skin, scaring it forever with a cross. Lavender eyes of beauty shimmer inoccently, revealing his calming side.

Himura the Batousai doesn't exist in this body or this era, as he has died out with the rest of his kind. Himura the Man-slayer had now becom Kenshin the wanderer... Who is currently doing laundry.

He was about to wring a towl up to dry when he spotted her, just standing there at the open front doors to the dojo. She was frightend, seemingly, of nothing. She stood there, her hand clasped hear her mouth, her pale beauty giving off a shine like the moonlight. Her pure white kimono made her even paler than she already was. Her hair was black, like everyone elses, but her eyes were dark, as if they were darkening with fear.

"Can I help you?" Kenshin asked politly walking forward.

When her hands titled slightly, a small charm on her fan moved, cathing Kenshin's eye. His eyes widened, and he suddenly took her hand from the fan. There it was, the little jade teddy bear. The beautiful bear that this girl held was strikingly similar to her's.

---_flashback_---

"Shinta! Shinta!" She slid around the corner and almost fell. Her hair was short and black, which was normal for someone lik her. "Shinta, look! I got you a birthday persent!" She held it out. It was a beautiful golden dove with a silver wing. "See? I spent all my savings to buy it for you!" She smiled.

Shinta, who would be later known as Kenshin, smiled. At the time, the two of them were friends from the farming feilds. This girl's name was Kanna Higashi. She was an only child and was to be wed to someone in a different village. At the moment, it was Shinta's birthday, so they were spending time at the river, playing around.

"You out-did yourslef, Kanna-san!"

"Yes, I did, Shinta-chan!" She smiled as he examined it. "I wish mydad was home more, than I wouldn't be so lonely and be so mean to everyone." She plopped down on the stones with Shinta, swinging her legs a little and splashing the water. "I wish I could become a samurai or a sowrdsman! But I'm a girl. All I'm good for is waiting at home for my husband and doing chores and making dinner for him and allthat stuff."

"You can be a swordsman. Run away from here. Like I want to. I want to go be someone special. I want to be someone special someday to someone I love." He smiled and looked up at the sky. "I'm running away tomorrow. If you ever see me again, I want you to have made something of yourself." He dug into a pocket. "Look, I know that your being taken away today. I want you to keep something for me." He took out a small jade bear attatched to a crimson rope. The jade was the most beautiful color of green and it was still gathering color. "It was something I found in the market for cheep. Keep it. If you ever meet me again and have made something of yourslef, give it back to me with another string, not this one. And keep the red string, that way, I know it was you."

"Deal!" Kanna smiled her inoccent smile once more.

That was the last time they saw or heard from each other. Shinta had run away after his entire village was desemated to dust and he had barely escaped. Kanna had vanished into the abyss. She'd never reached her destination, only an empty carriage with a half-dead coach arrived there, and the coach died moments later.

---_end flashback_---

"Kanna!" Kenshin grabbed her shoulders.

The woman sheilded her face with her arms, as if expecting a blow to her face. "P-please! Sir! I'm l-looking f-for Sa-Sagara." She was shaking now, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Y-yes. Forgive me." Kenshin turned to the house and saw Yahiko coming out. "Yahiko, can you please tell Sano he has a guest?"

"Fine." Yahiko turned back around and went inside.

"Why do you wish to see Sanosuke?"

"Um. Someone wishes to see him." She looked at Kenshin and her eyes widened. "Shinta! Is that really you!" She touched is cheek where the scar stood out.

"So it _is_ you, Kanna-san!"

"Then why are you here? Did you make something of your life?" Kanna stared at his blad and up at him. "Swordsman, ne?" She pointed to his sword. "I was expecting something like a man-slayer of the old world." She smiled a sort of lost smile. Her eyes seemed more distant and slightly lost from the last time Kenshin had seen her. "I'm a very valuable warrior of my group of fighters."

Sanosuke came into veiw, scratching his head and spotted Kanna and almost fell over. "Higashi Yura! What are you doing here!"

"Someone wishes to see you, Sanosuke." She bowed to Kenshin and walked up to Sano and gave him a letter. "Tomorrow, perhaps?" She smiled warmly and walked away, her white kimono stained with her black hair. She closed the door silently behind her and walked down the streets and around a corner.

She knocked twice on a door and waited for granted entry. When she was allowed, she gently pushed the door open and stepped inside, being careful not to make to much noise. She took her sandals off and quietly crawled across the wood floors and sat before a door and gently knocked once. She placed her hands in her lap and bowed her head, erasing her smile and replacing it with a stern look as the door slid open.

There, in the middle of the room at a table drinking tea was Captain Sagara. When he saw Kanna his eyes went from stern to soft and sad and he made a soft sigh. "Yes, Kanna-chan?"

"The note was delivered." She pressed her forehead to the ground and waited for him to say somehting. When he didn't, she sat back up and crawled over to the table and sat down opposite him. She put her fan upon the table and looked up at Sagara with a soft smile on her lips as her eyes lit up with laughter. "I met Shinta again. You were right, he does have the eyes of a veteran of the destructive era who has no place yet in this Meiji era. I was also wondering, why do you ask me to give Sanosuke a letter that I wrote?"

"I don't want him to know it's me who wishes to see him. And don't think I will ever forget what you had done for me that night, all those years ago." Sagara patted Kanna on the hand. "But, I will try to see him tomorrow. Dismissed."

Kanna bowed and crawled out backwards, not raising off her hands and knees and watched the bottom of the door slide shut before she fell back onto her back and stare up at the ceiling. It was getting harder not to flush when Sagara touched her, but, alas,she must get ready for tomorrows spar against Sanosuke.


	2. Tears the Color of Sadness

---_a river bank on the outskirts of town, Sano_---

He came down the bank and saw that white girl again. She was seated on a log and was silently fanning herself and watching the muddy water running past her. She sighed and put her fan down and looked at him. She smiled warmly and stood up, dusting herself off. "I suppose you came alone, as requested?"

"Yeah, but I thought I would be up against a man, not a beautiful rose of sorts." Sano scratched his head slightly.

Kanna dusted her kimono sleeves off and picked up a sheathed sword. A red ribbon was tied around the top of the sheath. There was the name Sagara imprinted on it. Her eyes slid closed and a breeze blew past, swirrling around her and kicking up dust and her hair, causing the image of a white rose who's thorn was beside it. When she opened her eyes once more, her eyes flaring with an unseen power. "I will acknowledge you as both an opponent and an ally." She held the sword horazantally before her. "Now, it will be our battle, Sano."

Sanosuke's eyes fell on the red ribbon first and then up at her eyes. "An ally, huh?"

"The bird that lays the egg with a snake will be eaten alive by their own offspring. The simple tale of being eaten alive is as simple as a moment of hesitation." Her swift movement caught Sano off guard. "The man to whom whishes to speak with you will comment on success and desemate on failure. Because I love him and for the sake of not becoming rusty, I will not tolerate hesitation." Her sword sheat thwaped Sano on the back of the head with a sickening CRACK! and she jumped back, holding the sword's hilt in her hand, her eyes narrowed, the red ribbon dangling beautifully against her stark white kimono.

Sano's whole body shook for a moment before he whipped around with his kick aimed high, straight for her face. "Very well! The table has been set! So I guess I have to play my cards!"

Kanna's head ducked low and she unsheathed the sword so quickly that she landed five blows before Sano felt the first. She quickly ducked once more, away from his punch and slammed her elbow into Sano's gut, making a mixture of spit and blood come flying out of his mouth.

---_Kamiyakashin Dojo, Kenshin_---

"Sano!" Kenshin pushed open the door to the room Sano was "renting" from Karou and saw nothing there, not even as warm bed and futon laid out. "Sano? Wheredcha go? Ah?" Kenshin had taken two steps and had stepped on a piece of paper.

Picking it up, he read; "Sanosuke Sagara, Come down to the river bank just outside of town. I will send a warrior to test you. If you fail, my warrior will destroy you for being so weak. I will ask that you leave this note in a place your friends may find it, bid that you die during the test. Come when at dusk the eve of tomorrow. Sagara."

"Eve? That must be where he went! Karou-dono!" Kenshin almost ran into the closed door, rushing to tell Karou and Yahiko.

---_river bank, Sano & Kanna_---

Her white kimono remaind spotless whilst his white jacket became more and more dirty, covered in blood, dirt, and some water. He raised his fists once more as she dropped the sheath and tied the red ribbon around her wrist.

She held the sword up in the Kuzu Ryu Sen stance, as if to strike with the Hiten Mitserugi Style. Her eyes slid closed as she uttered a name that Sano heard.

"Captain Sagara, forgive me for these sins, let me stand beside you instead of behind you, in the darkness that is your shadow." She crouched down lower, her hands coming closer together on the hilt. "I wish to be the one you adore from within your heart, Souzou-sama." She charged forward, her blade becoming a streak, along with her whole body, tears streaking the air.

Sano was just preparing himself for the blow when she appeared, the blade grazing his skin. "Why'dcha stop? AH!"

There, only a few feet away, stood Captain Souzou Sagara, a few years seem to have been added to him in height and in body. He was holding the other end of the red ribbon that was tied around Kanna's wrist, stopping her from harming Sano.

"Kanna!"

She stood there, her shoulders shaking, silently crying where only Sano could see. She shook her head and the tears were gone from her face, but not from her eyes. "hai, Souzou-sama?"

"That's quite enough!" He tugged harder and her hands released the blade as she gave a soft yelp. "iie, Sanosuke. I never thought you would have acctually taken my name like that. Kanna!"

"hai?"

"Go, leave me and our guest. Return to head quarters."

She opened her mouth to protest, but thought better of it and bowed, retreiving her sword and sheath, abandoning her ribbon that lay in the dirt at Sagara's feet.

---_the bridge just above the river, Kanna, Kenshin, Karou, & Yahiko_---

Kanna was seated just a little ways away from the three who had come for their friend and felt a ping of sadness. She loved her captain, she loved him for everything he had done and for the sake that her heart was set on him. She knew it was a hopeless cause, but she couldn't help but feel that she was destined to be near him, somehow.

She looked at Kenshin, her eyes stinging. Souzou had always told her to bite her lip and take things tougher than heartbreak. She wished that she would have seen Shinta earlier, before the revolution, so she could have never met Souzou and been in so much pain.

"Perhaps a white rose of the blade should shed tears colored joy instead of sad."

She was shocked and when she turned to see the speaker, she was met with the tall Aoishi.

"The White Rose does not always cry tears the color of joy. Her tears are always the color of sadness. Perhaps I am misunderstanding?" Aoishi's hand patted her on the head. His eyes were like an older brother's looking down upon a sorrowed sister's face.

"Misunderstood? iie... I simply want to be more to him than what he sees me as now, that's all, Aoishi-nii." She wiped her tears away and turned to look at the trio once more. "I wish for friends that he does not shun away. I wish for a friend I have lost that he will accept. I wish for his hand in marriage, or just a moment to be nearer to him. But my wish will never be heard in the roar of his life."

"You are geting more poetic. Maybe, one day, those words of your will become the roar of his life for the last time." Aoishi smiled a slight smile and walked away, down the path he had just come.

"Poetic? That's what Shinta told me once..."

---_flashback_---

Shinta's hat was falling off his head as he continued to work in the blazing sun. Kanna, not to far away, was working even harder than most of the boys. She threw her whole body into the swing of the blade she was using to cut down the stale crops.

Break sounded off with a blast of a loud whistle. The two children walked to the bank together. The river was cooling and the sky was burning. Kanna was staring up when she spoke the words that she wondered if anyone would ever use.

"The flames of revolution clash with the ice of a normal evolution. Like the sun bathes the earth in heat and the water cools the furnace of the beautiful earth. One of dvine heaven the other of devine earth. One cannot live without the other. The revolution cannot be completed without the ice of time's own evolution."

"Kanna-dono?"

"oi!" Kanna hit Shinta on the forehead.

"iie! iie!"

"I told you, I'm not THAT much older than you! Only by a few months, true, but that doesn't make me a noblewoman!"

"But you will be, someday, Kanna-nee-chan!"

"n-nee-ch-chan?" Kanna stared at the little redhead. "Gee, being, probably, the only healthy boy around here sure doesn't seem fair. You don't have any disabilities, not disease, and you sure don't seem to be having heartattacks or wrinkling real quick. Someday, your fine witt and beautiful face will charm the one you seek for love and they will follow you! You will always bear the beauty that everyone wishes to possess!"

"Kanna-nee?"

"sono tori desu, Shinta-chan?"

"I like it when you speak in a poetical way. I'm sure someon will adore those words someday and love you for the way you speak them so gracefully and with such beauty!"

"don'na!" Kanna stared in wonder at Shinta until the whistle blew once more.

---_end flashback_---

"sono tori desu, Kenshin-dono..." She quickly joged away, her eyes watering, but not a tear fell down her pale cheeks, but she was ready to stain her inoccent soul with something very tarnishing to her little village. "I will wear the sinless color of white no longer, as I commit the same sin everyday." She was ready to change theColor of the Sinless White to theColor of the Liar Black...


	3. The Color of the White Rose

---_Captain Sagara's HQ, Kanna_---

She was seated out on the porch, the bright moon filtering down, through the trees. Her fan rested beside her, untouched, but cleaned neatly. She was the hostess of Sagara's guests, so she was to sit there every night and await the arrival of any guest. Since Souzou Sagara loved to have his guests arrive in the dead of night, it was up to Kanna to greet them and make them comfortable.

Tonight was no different, only that she was awaiting Captain Sagara and Kenshin's atsumeru. Tonight, she admitted her sins and was ready to become one of the many that mourn the loss of someone or something dear to their souls. She was leaving tonight, taking her sword, her pure white kimono, and the fan. She had already arranged for a ride to come pick her up in two hours and had her own money to take with her. She was mourning the loss of her love for her leader.

The soft "tak" of the sandals was approaching. She rose to her feet, unfurling her stark black kimono and hiding her hands with the long sleeves of her kimono and her nose and mouth with her fan that she cherished. She bowed low to Souzou and the rest of the atsumeru before she slid the door open. She still had to wrap up her kimono and still had to place her farwell letter to Souzou where he could find it, so she had to lead them inside.

Kanna didn't notice Souzou's pained shock. He adored her in that inoccent white color. It made her seem like she was always a sinless being sent down from the heavens high above. He loved her in that sense that she wanted to never stain her inoccent soul with lies or blood, and as long as the white shone brightly, she was sinlessly inoccent and wasn't ever going to let blood or sins stain her. He felt that ping of pain he'd felt the day she was forbbiden to look upon him anymore.She wore the color of the sinful, and it pained him dearly, like the daggar of sadness had chosen him to be the fell target.

Kanna bowed gracefully, her hair had been let loose from it's ponytail, so it swept about her like water would around an object in it's path, giving her the look of someone who was drown in a sea of darkness and decay.

Kenshin touched her sleeve, unable to bear her like this. "Kanna-chan, nan no?"

"Why do you ask 'what' when there is no answer for it, Kenshin-san?" Her eyes raised up to the group and they were all shocked at what they saw.Souzou and Kenshin were shocked most of all. Her eyes were those of a killer. Blood-thirsty,reining in madness, soaked in hate and lies, scared with the rage of revenge. She was no longer the inoccence that had once blossomed in Shinta's village, nor the rose that saved Souzou's soul from thebullets that raind down upon him, buta merderous villan who would have slaughtered Kenshin where he stood or killed Souzou for the world to have his head.

"K-Kanna!" Souzou's eyes were wide and his pupils were shrinking. This was the mark ofa sinner? Was this the look that a woman from Shinta and Kanna's village would see? Was this the image of a sinner painted black? Was it? Or was she simply a dead body without a soul to tell what's right and wrong?

"Please, do excuess me, Souzou-kun."

The honorific she gave him shocked him even furthur. "d-doshite, Kanna!"

"Why? I called you that because I have lied to myself long enough. I love you, Souzou Sagara. But it is a sin to love someone who means so much to other people, who leads them on in life. So I must part, now that I have spoken." She turned to leave.

Sano grabbed her arm and wheeled her around. "Don't walk away! Captain Sagara would never turn someone away!"

"Do you love someone you shouldn't, Sanosuke-san?"

At these words, Kenshin's fists tightened and Yahiko began to sweat some. Karou hid her face, as she knew who he adored and was afraid she'd be asked.

Sano's grip on her arm slacked a smidge. "hai... His kind witts kept me alive and his beautiful face has charmed my heart long enough for me to remember the feeling of love I feel inside for him... And I hope that I, Sagara Sanosuke, can return those affections, full-heartedly and without regret."

"Then you will understand what I must face." She gently shooed his hand away, her eyes becoming a little softer. "I told a friend of mine a long time ago, his witt and charm would make someone love him for what he is. I didn't know I was telling the future whilst I said that." She bowed once more and this time, her sandals faded away, off, down the dark hall, down the hall where nolight followed.

Sano suddenly collapsed. "I-I... That woman speaks as if she's a soother or maybe something like an optimist." He looked up at Karou and gave a soft laugh. "I think I gave it away, missy." He stood up. "So, do you two know?"

Sagara's eyes fell on Kenshin, and Yahiko smiled. In unison they said; "Himura Kenshin, the man from the revolution."

Sano smiled. "Yes, Kenshin, I fell in love with ya."

Kenshin fainted, making a loud thunk as he fell on Yahiko and Karou. Sano began to worry over Kenshin as the other two bickered about how heavy the other one was. Sagara looked down the empty halls as he heard the soft voice of Kanna floating towards them, her voice barely audible over the roar of the arguments around them, but Sagara felt a sudden faimilarity with this mix.

His blind rage at the men who started the revolution had become the bellow in his mind, but that soft voice of sainity was coming from Kanna's small voice, a voice that penetrated so quickly into his rage that it had been dwindled down to a whisper as well. But the words she always spoke were the same...

'_The flames of the revolution cannot have exsisted without the ice of a normal evolution, Souzou-sama. You cannot blame the revolution for taking Sanosuke away from you, but you can blame fate for letting both of you have your lives back. You must always remember the grace of the revolution let him live, but it also desemated the atsumeru that you led._'

"'The flames of the rvolution...' I won't ever forget those flames, Kanna-kun."

"AHA!"

Sagara almost fell against the paper doors in shock. "nan no!"

Sano smiled. "You did fall in love." Now that he acctually stood close to Sagara, he could see that he wasn't taller than his captain, just the same height as his former leader. "Why didn't you say sum'n to that girl?"

"Why does she wear black? Answer me that." He had adressed anyone who cold answer.

Kenshin stepped forward. "In the village i grew up in, there is a religious faith. The colors of your kimono represent your mental status as well as any sins you have commited. The Color of Inoccence White, the Color of Death and Destruction Pink, the Color of the Liar Black, the Color of Faith Blue, the Color of Hope Red, and the Color of Equality Yellow. Those are the Sin Status. To wear a color with it is same as mine. Redemption of White, Revenge of Green, Jadded of Brown, Love of Red, Greed of Purple Hue, Deviant of Yellow, and Sunful of Black. The colors as they mix represent each status. I wear the Color of Death and Destrution Pink as well as Redemption of White. I am paying for the sins of death I have caused by letting life return to this world with each passing day."

"But then she warsthe Color of the Liar Black and Sinful of Black." Sano was thinking outloud once more.

"Yes, so she has lied to, not only herself, but to everyone." Kenshin's eyes swiftly moved to Sagara and he pointed his finger at him. "She wars the colors of those who have lost the will to live their lives because they have lost the love of someone they tresure. She knew that I would remember those colors of war and peace, so she wore them before she returns to her White Rose. A rose from the grave is she, that she is. But for her to throw it away easily isn't like her, that it most surely isn't. The White Rose has her thorn and I have learned well what that thorn can do to one's heart if torn away..."


	4. Clash in the Rain

---_Just outside Kyoto_---

"This is as far as I can take you, ok?"

"Thank you." Kanna smiled warmly at her friend. She didn't want to leave Souzou like that, but she really had to get away from him so that way she could come to terms with her sins and not break down to tears over it. "You can leave. I left the tip in there." She turned and started to walk towards Tokyo, where she was going.

Kanna had entered the forest when she turned around and looked at the beauty of Kyoto one last time before she walked away. She smiled weakly at the beauty of the lights floating on the water and turned away, tears finally streaking down her face. Even if Souzou came to say goodbye, he wouldn't make it, since Kanna had always beaten Souzou in relfexes and speed.

She began to walk into the darkness, ignoring the path that people had trodded out through the forest and going her own way along it. She looked up at the stars and held up her hand, as if to touch them, and then she spoke aloud, her voice drifting away on the soft breezes. "My beloved Sagara... could we have watched the stars just one night? Like you used to with all of your sutors. Could I have been there to be your beloved wife? Would you pick me over all of them?" She lowered her hand and it dropped to her side as she looked forward. "Your voice was soft like this breeze that sweeps through my hair, your hands were strong like the earth, and your words were like heaven's grace touching this sinner's heart. I wish that I could have been your lover, be the woman you cherish in your heart... but that wish was never to be granted, was it, Souzou-kun? Will I ever be loved in this world?"

---_Souzou's room_---

He opened the door and saw a box right on his table. He stared at it for a moment and the closed the door behind him and slid over to see what it was. Souzou was still a little heartbroken over his lack of words for Kanna.

He opened the box and saw a letter on top of something wrapped in white silk. He looked at the letter, it was blank, not a single to or from on it. He opened it and saw her words;

**Souzou-kun, I apologize for not being what you wanted. I really did try! I just couldn't take the pain of watching you every time with your new sutor and knowing that I was loosing you everytime, so I just up and quit.  
I'm in love with you and it's utterly torture when I can't even make you smile anymore. I loved you since we first met, it seems. I remember how I had saved you and cared for you and suddenly I was shunned away from you, and I always loved that beautiful smile on your face.  
Please, take my gift to you and let me know that I will still be loved by you. I give you the thing that made you happieset back to you. My love, will you still love me?**

Souzou noticed she hadn't signed it and opened the silk. There it lay, that white kimono, bathed in moonlight, and he felt a soft tear trickle it's way down his cheek and he suddenly gasped and wiped it away. He ran his hand over the soft cotton of her kimono and he felt that warm breeze of the day he woke to her face.

---_flashback_---

Souzou felt that gentle breeze and heard the soft chime of the wind chime nearby. He slowly opened his one good eye and saw that bright sunlight warming the world around him and felt the warm futon lying over him. He heard someone shift and he turned to see her, for the first time in his life.

She was a vision of white, her white kimon shimmering in the white light that seemed to come from absolutely no where as a white dove flew off, shedding some feathers that feel around her as she put a hand on his shoulder. She smiled softly at him and put a finger to his lips when he tried to speak, a touch that was as soft as a rose's touch.

"Where am I?"

"Your in a place you can heal." She smiled brightly. "Don't worry though. This girl can hold her own in a fight, so you can rest peacefully. Oh! And try not to sit up to much, it might open the wounds that just healed." She stood up and slowly closed half the door so that way the sun wasn't right over his face and she looked over her shoulder and smiled. Her hair was tied up with white sticks that had white roses on the ends and some beads. A charm dangled free around her waist, a jade bear with gem eyes. "I'll get you something to eat, sir."

---_end flashback_---

Souzou was running down the halls and ran right past his guests' rooms as he darted out into the open air and took off towards Tokyo, ignoring the rain that weighed him down. He knew where she was going! She was going back to her old home in Tokyo, back to the servant's life she had for that old man who hurt her so. He didn't want that.

He managed to make it to the outskirts in record time, he stopped for a breather, staring into that darkness and then he took off at a run. '_Why does it always hurt when she looks away? Why am I chasing after her? Why? Does that tale of love really true? People in love do crazy things? If that's true, I'm doing something crazy for you._'

He managed to stop not to far from Kanna's resting spot and he saw her when she stood up and looked up at the rain under her umbrella. She heard him snap a branch and turned to face him, water rolling down his face, cold like an icey wind, in his fighting uniform. She stared him down as he walked towards her.

"K-Kanna-kun?" '_Why do I love her? Is it because she's still here after all these years?_'

"Souzou?"

His eyes widened as he saw a hand coming up to snag her. He suddenly pushed her to the side and managed to twist the arm side-ways. It was Saito. They glared each other down as Souzou held Kanna behind him, holding her arm. As he didn't have a weapon to fend off Saito's blade he had to improvise, but couldn't in a short time, so Kanna stepped in.

She flipped her fan shut and blocked the fatal blow to Souzou's shoulder. She held fast to Saito's strength, just like she would against any man who tried to harm her or some innocent person. She suddenly released. The sudden lost in power threw Saito off and he only scraped Souzou's shoulder.

---_Souzou's guests, Sano_---

He stood there, shock washing over him. He didn't know Captain Sagara could fly by like that and not even make a sound. He stared at the open door at the now-heavy rain. '_First it drizzles, then it rains... what's next? Hail? Snow? Blood?_' He sighed as he felt Kenshin tug his sleeve. Being shorter than Sano was kinda funny for such a powerful guy who seemed to like dressing in pink, which made Sano always blush crimson when he looked down at Kenshin and his eyes wandered down to the exposed chest. "Yeah?"

"Shouldn't we follow? Kanna and Souzou may need help, that they might." He smiled his cute smile and Sano had to do all he could not to hug Kenshin tight and constrict him. "Sano-kun?"

"Ken, that isn't our problem. Besides, I think they can handle. Kanna was always a good swords-woman, ever since I first met her when we were just oh, I dunno, when I was like twelve and she was almost seventeen... but your twenty-eight and she's something like only twenty... that confuses me."

"Kanna always lied about her age. She is indeed older than me, but she always said by a few months, which was almost true. She's a year and a few month's older, that she is. She's twenty-nine and sum odd days." Kenshin sighed. "She always did that because she didn't remember one year of her younger life because of a disease that erased her memories of stuff like love and family, so, she was an orphan until she dissappeared."

"No. I remember. The Sekihoutai saved a young girl from an ambush and we named her Higashi Yura, because we thought the name fit. When she grew a little more accustomed to travel, she would travel with us and be the swordswoman that every girl loved to hear about, and then she, along with the rest of the Sekihoutai, just vanished that night. I didn't think they were still around." Sano looked out at the rain again. "It was raining the day we met her... and the day she save Sagara's life in return for us saving her's... so we thought she was going to keep living with this rich guy who wanted her to be his 'hand-maid' and I never thought I'd see her again... looks like you weren't either." He put his hand down and managed to grab Kenshin's. "I guess we should go take a look and see if their ok." He smiled and brushed his lips against Kenshin's cheek and ran off, abandoning the redhead there to be stunned, a smile on his lips as he looked back. '_Yes, I think Yura was right to tell me that she disliked Higashi Yura when she and I first talked. But she was also right by saying that I would find love in someone strong._'


	5. The End of a Legacey

---_Kanna and Souzou_---

She dodged left and felt the blade collide with her ankle and she hissed, falling to the side. She saw his blade coming down upon her and she quickly slid back so her legs got scratched up pretty good as she flipped her fan open and swung it at him, slicing open his sleeves and jacket.

Souzou saw his opening and charged, knocking Saito off his feet and the two of them collided with the nearest tree. Souzou lifted his fist and slammed it into the side of Saito's face, blood splashing out all over his fist and the dirt beneath the "officer", and he didn't stop when Saito finally dropped his weapon.

Kanna slowly stood up, her hands shaking, her eyes wide. She reached out and gently took hold of Souzou's raised fist and sank to her knees beside the two men as she held Souzou's hand to her face and gently kissed his fist, which loosened and his menacing look vanished, he just relaxed and his other hand came up and he touched her cheek.

Saito lay there looking away, not wanting to watch these two. "Get off of me, you." He shoved Souzou off and reached for his sword. Kanna stepped on the blade so he couldn't pick it up. "Cut it out. I'm not going to cut anyone with this any time soon." He sheathed it. "I know this will be the worst way to tell the woman of my brother's house, but, now is not the best time to return to his house..."

Kanna nodded. She took out a hankercheif and handed it to him. He stared at her. She pointed to her mouth. "For the blood." She went to Souzou and smiled her innocent smile once more and she handed him her fan, as if she was asking him a favor. "You can hold that for a bit." She went out of sight, where the trees were thickest and the rain didn't come through as much.

Saito hit Souzou with the hankercheif. "She writes things in odd places. Maybe she's giving you a message... like this." He held up her hankercheif. There, written in katakana were the words '_don't, not in the rain, and deffinately not when I'm here_' "She refers to any harm to you... she's so annoying like that..." Saito looked utterly irritated. "See, the thing is, my 'brother', as he calls himself, wants her head. I went ahead to try to warn her. I'm sorry, but I had thought you were one of the men that wanted her head... do you wish for a formal apology?"

Souzou grimaced. "No."

---_Sano and Ken_---

Kenshin suddenly whirrled around in a circle, avoiding a spear that was thrown at him and he almost fell, but Sano caught him. They looked for the source of the spear. When they found nothing, Sano decided to move on, and so did Kenshin.

The two began to walk into the forest when they heard a crash and looked to see trees being pushed out of the way of a raging man who had a body drapped in awhite shirt and dark leggings with shoes and black hairdragging behind him. He was tall, almost like Aoishi, but his hair was blonde and his eyes the color of blood, and skin like ivory colors. Beside him was a sword dripping with rain and blood.

Kenshin noticed the body was dead already and the rain was washing away the blood from it's wounds, almost like there was something horribly wrong with the body, like it was blood-less.

All of a sudden, it swung the sword at something that was trying to get up from the splintered mess of trees and they saw him, his red head band flying out, his white shirt bathed in water, his armour shimmering with blood, black hair flying, black leggings and white and black shoes drenched in mud and blood...

Souzou collided with a tree and it snapped, his scream echoing throughout the forest. Sano darted in front of the next attack and re-directed it with his two-layer technique. Kenshin was about to take action when a flash of white and he saw her, her blade embeded with diamonds, dripping blood in the rain. Kanna's eyes were no longer sweet and beautiful, they were dark and evil, almost like those of the Batousai.

Sano charged forward, but he wasn't able to fight this thing of a human. Kanna's blade flashed over his down body and she matched the man blow-for-blow, like they were equals, despite age, height, and gender. She hopped over him as he began to slice at her. She changed course right over his head and managed to twist around and slash at the back of his neck, knocking him forward and she landed lightly near a tree, her blad held up before her. She twitched and was a blur of white as the man began to stand.

Sano pointed. "See? She's all good. I think the name we gave her would have been perfect."

Kenshin stared at Sano. "Your proud to call her your sister, aren't you?"

"Nah. I consider her a cousin!"

Souzou groaned and covered his face. "I see somethings don't change..." He wobbled to his feet and he sighed, leaning against a sturdy tree and he watched her. "She means a lot to me because she saved my life and I have nothing I can return in payment for that... in some ways, she's like a lover I never will get..." He slid to his knees, his legs giving out and he slumped to the ground.

The man changed course and threw Saito at Souzou and Sano. The two of them weren't able to dodge out of the way, but they did manage to hold Saito. Kenshin and Kanna charged forward, their blades flashing and the man matched them blow-for-blow. Kenshin raised his blade to do the Kuzu Ryu Sen and was suddenly knocked to the side by Kanna's sheath.

"oro!" Kenshin was startled, but then he saw it, her hand was bleeding.

"Don't do anything fancy. Stick to the basics. He has no power of the basics. He also copies any special attacks you use to defeat him... even if you think you can beat him that way, you have to do something different and not something that he can copy." She launched herself at the man again and she clashed. "There's no point in trying to give him time! Just charge in whenever you feel like you see an opening!"

"hai?" Kenshin saw her throw an opening free when she threw her own blade into the air, throwing his blade up as well, showing that she was now unarmed.

Kenshin's blade flared with rain and became so quick to cut that man across the knees, knocking him down. His hands raised up to do a vertical strike on this guy, but it came down a little slow, so the guy was out of the way before the blade was able to strike him, mud flying up into the air around the slab of metal as it came down on where the opponent once was. All of a sudden, Kenshin went flying past, his whole body coming to a full fledged tree and colliding with it,with the tree starting to crack and collapse.

Kanna's fan became a circular blade that cut down the tree so it wasn't so harsh of a fall on Kenshin. She blocked with her blade and made it spin off. She stood there, breath coming uneasily, blood staining that pure white kimono, but it wasn't an enemy blood, it was Kenshin's blood that stained her cloths, causing large red hand-prints on her sleeve, like blotches of red rose petals on white snow.

"This is the end," Kanna whispered, her eyes begining to streak with tears as she straightened up with Kenshin's arm at her side. "This is where I draw the line. I won't live to see a new day anymore. I must die like I should have back then. There's no way I can live my life now that those around me are starting to suffer from my mistakes, the mistakes I caused by acting selfishly. No more. Today, I can finally die and rest peacefully benath the earth." She closed her eyes and smiled. "Kenshin? Shinta-chan, take care of yourself and the one you love, ok?"

"Eh?" Kenshin stared as Kanna raised her daimond-studded blade above her head. "K-Kanna?"

"Goodbye," she said, turning to her friend and his lover and at the face of the man she loved. "Today, I can rest peacefully knowing your all safe." She turned back to her opponent as he lurched forward to attack her. "BRING IT! I can take what ever you throw at me now! I know where your weakness stands!" She brought her blade down and sliced off his legs from the top of the knee to the heels of his foot. He managed to twist around and smack her across the back with his huge blade and slash open her back and spread her blood all over the kimono and splashing into the mud, she lay there, unmoving. She didn't even twitch.

"Kana!" Souzou lunged forward and scooped her up into his arms. "Kanna?" He pushed her hair out of her face. "Maybe I shouldn't be the one alive. I should have died years ago, when they fired those guns at me and betrayed me in such a manor, don't you think, Sano?"

"Well, there's a chance you were meant to be here to be beside her. There's that possibility as well, Sagara. I don't think it's quite the reason you want, but there's no way you can just throw her away like that. I think you should be the person she wants to smile just for her sometimes, like sometimes I want Kenshin to just be the dork he is. Maybe you should live just a little while longer so she can finally rest at ease?"

Souzou stared at Kanna's paling face and she smiled softly and touched his cheek with her cold hand. Her eyes began to fade and her tears began to stop as she slowly let go of Souzou's other hand and her's fell into the mud. The rain kept pouring, pouring like they didn't care that it had smothered the tears of a dying girl like that, sheding the regrets of life and sheding new light onto a dead man's heart.

---_one week later_---

Kenshin was carrying a boquet of white roses and Sano was carrying a single white Lily of the Valley. The two stood before a set of graves. One read; **Here lies Kanna, a White Rose amongst the toughest men, Dec. 2 - March 5, Beloved sister, beloved friend**, and beside it, that tomb stone read; **Here likes Souzou, a strong man until the end of his days, Jan. 16 - March 6, Beloved leader, beloved friend**.

Kenshin knelt down and touched Kanna's grave. "You rest now. The forest will protect you for as long as you need. You and Souzou are free now, free to love and be loved like you have always longed for, that you can. Rest and be free, free, free!" Kenshin put the boquet down and stood up. "You think they'll be safe?"

"Yeah." Sano kissed Kenshin on the ear and put his Lily of the Valley on Souzou's grave. "I think they'll be just fine. Kanna and Souzou could hold their own in a fight, no sense they go through the afterlife not loving one another." Sano smiled. "NOW! TIME FOR BEEF STEW ON KAROU!"

'_He only thinks of food when it's _utterly_ neccesary. Well, I think that makes him cute!_'


End file.
